A Finnish company specialized in cruise and passenger vessels refurbishment works announced today, that they donated children’s equipment to the federation of mother and child homes and shelters in Turku. The company, Oy FCR Finland Ltd a member of SHIPSU provider network did turnkey refurbishment projects on the Royal Caribbean Cruise Lines vessel Independence of the Seas in April 2013 when she was docked in Germany.

It seems, that STX France is having real interest towards the Finnish maritime contractors, who have done works in STX Finland in previous Oasis-class projects. According to news today, STX France may be contracting Finnish maritime subcontractors in RCI’s third Oasis –class vessel project, which we wrote a lot late 2012. The news talked about decent amount of orders, summing up to 100+ million Euros. This is absolutely great news for Finnish shipbuilding cluster, who have excellent references in Oasis of the Seas and Allure of the Seas projects.

I took advantage of the high quality blog posts and professional journals gathering the news of Finnish shipyards now being for sale and do not write anything about the things around it. To summarize: STX Groups problems have escalated into level, which forces the current decision makers to sell parts of the group, including STX Europe, which basically consist of STX Finland and STX France. There is a strategic interest for French government to buy the majority of their navy service provider but that is not the case in Finland. At least not in the Turku shipyard, which is known more of the fine cruise vessels. Rauma shipyard however, is strategically important for Finnish navy. Rauma is known for special vessels and it has been suffering of the unclear political decision making regarding sulphur regulations, which has frozen the newbuilding of pax vessels in certain areas in the world. Well, problems in financial environment have a lot to do in that sector as well.

M/S Isabella was sold and the news came today. The vessel is quite close to SHIPSU and the members in the service at this time. We announced earlier this year in SHIPSU open requests to do maintenance work to M/S Isabella, vessel owned by Viking Line who just replaced her with Viking Grace, this modern LNG powered cruiserferry. This time the open request of refurbishment work was limited to upholstery works only. Reason for this limited refurbishment was obvious; the ship was in great shape. I discussed with Viking Line representative about the future of the ship and it was supposed to start operating between Helsinki, Finland and Tallinn, Estonia. The route is very popular because of the close location of these two ports and a lot of people travelling on that route in both business and pleasure. According to the new owner, the vessel will be placed to route between Riga, Latvia and Stockholm, Sweden.

Marketing in business to business environment is all about the connections and communication to correct audience. There are several outstanding events to take part and communicate with the industry. Networking, direct sales, new leads and valuable customer contacts are available at conventions and exhibitions. As we see, it we have the perfect setup to communicate one to many. We introduce our network of professional in magazines, do directed web marketing in SEO, social media and banner advertising but one of the most important features it to be seen in is a well-chosen exhibition. This week, www.SHIPSU.com is attending in Cruise Shipping Miami.

In the beginning of February, we had a visit to STX France and had a proper meeting with the procurement department. We had an audit request from the Sourcing director himself and were naturally pleased to hear, that our concept awakened so much interest. Why wouldn’t it be interesting to sourcing department and to the person in charge of sourcing in a giga-size project, which is completely new for the organization?

I’ve taken a time off from blogging about the third Oasis class ship although there is quite interesting debate going on at least in the Scandinavia. The fact is, that STX France has the big project on hand and naturally it is the main thing that matters at least for those involved with that huge project. The client wants to get the most spectacular piece of cruise ship delivered with quality. There are challenges on the way but after all, it is just work and with right attitude and resources, many difficult things can be resolved. There might be stones on the path to success, but it is up to individuals whether they build a wall or a bridge from the stones.

I’ve been having a bunch of meetings internally, sewing network with professionals in the business and virtually welding together an interesting concept for the industry. Early this week our team is happy to inform, that we have received a request to visit the procurement department of STX France. The Sourcing director himself answered to us and we’re preparing the trip as we speak.

It is interesting to hear what they think, how the concept of ours could help them to find the best service providers and material manufacturers with the latest references with the previous Oasis class vessels and other cruise ships in the world.